The Border Collies

Jack

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Disclosures

Unless specifically stated otherwise in the individual post, beginning Nov. 1, 2009, every book read and "reviewed" on Books 'N Border Collies was purchased for my private collection or came from the public library system.

I am an Amazon Associate and some of the links in posts do lead to Amazon.

NOTICE: (Updated March 5, 2010)

Beginning December 19, 2009, Books 'N Border Collies will be posting but only intermittently while I pursue personal goals. I plan to share some reading I'm doing, but there will be no reviews. I will, however, be sharing my exploration of vegetarian cooking and the cookbooks and websites I use to educate myself. I hope you enjoy it!

Lezlie

Saturday, March 29, 2008

I was about ten chapters into Things Fall Apart when it occurred to me. I was enjoying the book, but I felt like I was missing some serious points. The sparse writing had temporarily lulled me into skimming the surface. I hopped on Google and found myself a fabulous study guide that supplied questions to ponder as I continued reading and a resource website that explored Post-Colonial Literature from various parts of the world. Suddenly I was reading a book that went from "quaint" to "powerful".

On the off chance that it’s not completely obvious, I lack a college education in literature. While I often am tempted to remedy that, I am also acutely aware that years of required reading being laid out for me would probably not produce the desired effect, because, quite frankly, I want to read what I want to read when I want to read it. Therefore, I am doing my best to educate myself while indulging in my wide-ranging tastes. Hence, the occasional forays into the world of online study tools. In this case, I was extremely pleased that I did. I think that I would have picked up on more of the themes once I had gotten into the coming of the missionaries, but I’m not sure I would have fully appreciated the entire first section of the book where Achebe describes many of the intricacies of tribal life. I ended up becoming so engrossed that I immediately went out and purchased the two books about the main character’s descendants, Arrow of God and No Longer at Ease, which I plan on reading right away.

Ultimately, I had a hard time drumming up a lot of sympathy for Okonkwo, the main character. Even in the light of his own culture he was a jerk. But I did understand his feelings at the end. And I felt terrible for the Ibo people as their world began changing before their eyes. While the Ibo traditions look harsh and primitive to Western sensibilities, it worked for them and had beauty and nobility despite its flaws. While I have no desire to live in a tribal culture, I find myself envying certain aspects of a simpler life. And every time I read about things like this coming of the missionaries or the displacement of the Native Americans and the like, I always think to myself, “And what makes our way of life so much better? Why do we think we are so superior?” Granted, leaving babies out in the woods to die because of superstitious beliefs is abhorrent on every level, but why do we feel the need to wipe out every aspect of life that doesn’t look like ours? And as I sit in my mid-western suburban home pondering these questions, American troops sit in Iraq. I’m not getting political here. This is a book blog. I’m just saying there’s a lot to think about.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

I'm almost to the 3 month mark of being a blogger. I've been having so much fun that it seems like much longer! The Challenges have been a huge draw for me, and as I looked over my spreadsheet of titles I've committed to and thought about all the great books I've discovered since I wrote up my lists, I started to think my lesson so far had been, "Never make your year's reading plan in January." Not so, my friends!! Lucky me! With the exception of the To Be Read Challenge, all the lists can be altered at will! Oh, glorious day! (I know, I know. The Challenges are not meant to be taken that seriously, but once I've set myself some goals I can be real bull-headed about changing them. Not always a good thing. And I like to follow the rules.)

It took some doing, because I cross-challenged with a lot of books, but some changes were made to accommodate my literary ADD. I'm sorry to say that Far From The Maddening Crowd and Wuthering Heights lost their spots unless I read faster than I think I can. I have a few "Undetermined" spots they still may fill, but they might see the TBR Challenge next year, where I can't remove them again. :-) But in their place are some interesting reads I couldn't pass up. I've added:

-- Finn by Jon Clinch, because it's about Huck's father and I want to read it right after Huck Finn

-- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz because I want to read Was by Geoff Ryman (which I've also added), which is based on Oz

-- Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe, because I'm reading Things Fall Apart right now, and I really want to read more by him

I think I made a few more adjustments also, but those were the ones I was the most excited about. I'm re-energized! My new lesson: "Challenge lists are not written in stone. Be flexible!"

While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?

Those things will definitely have an impact on my browsing. I'd rather have a new book than an old or used one. I am nearly neurotic about the condition of my personal collection. I closely examine copies I'm thinking about buying for nicks and scratches and bends. I prefer trade paperbacks to hardcovers or mass market paperbacks. I pick up books with interesting-looking covers. I'll read the backs of books with covers I think are ugly just out of curiosity. But as for affecting my actual reading enjoyment, it doesn't change a thing. My final opinion of a book rests with what is written on the pages, corners bent or not.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

I've never been much of a short story reader, but for a long time I have wanted to learn more about them and to develop an appreciation. I joined the Short Story Challenge just for that purpose. It provided a reason for me to interrupt my steady flow of novels for brief moments and begin my short story education. The couple that I've read so far, I've really enjoyed and would like to share them with those of you who have read the reviews and would like to read the stories for yourself. Therefore, I have added links to online texts of the two stories I have reviewed so far and will continue to do so for those that are available. If you've already read my reviews, feel free to come back and read the stories themselves and let me know what you thought of them! Here are links back to the original two for your convenience:

Monday, March 24, 2008

What is it about some short stories that they can put you in your place and make you feel like a complete heel without ever directly pointing a finger? "Miss Brill" is a three page vignette of a woman people-watching at a public band performance in a park. She goes there every week and enjoys the miniature "performances" unfolding around her, listening in on snippets of the lives of others, smiling and envisioning wonderful things for those she sees. We've all done that. And we've all passed our snarky little judgments on those we've deemed unworthy for no reason other than we didn't like the way they looked. But guess what? Life is not a private performance. The others we're watching are watching us, too. How many kind-hearted Miss Brill's would I have made cry if they could have heard my thoughtless remarks?

I closed the book on this gorgeous story feeling thoroughly chastised. Once again I am reminded of all the work I have ahead of me if I really want to be the kind of person I would admire.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

"What the worm was to the corpse, his sins would be to the painted image on the canvas. They would mar its beauty, and eat away its grace. They would defile it, and make it shameful. And yet the thing would still live on. It would be always alive."

I thought it would be a bit unnerving to read this book as I pass into the early stages of middle age. I see my hair slowly graying, my skin beginning to loosen ever so slightly. My eyes are not as sharp as they once were and my knees and ankles pop. And I am surrounded by a society that worships youth and beauty. What would I give to the stop the decaying hands of time and stay forever young?

Those were my thoughts as I began the novel. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of those books that has been in my consciousness for so long that I thought I knew what it was about. How wrong I was! No devil shows up to bargain for Dorian’s soul in exchange for immortality. Dorian’s wish to remain forever young turns out to be merely a passing whim stated out loud then all but forgotten. But something or someone heard, and his eternal youth becomes a beautiful mask to polite society while his originally somewhat naive soul plunges into duplicitous immorality, and the mutating painting becomes a constant reminder of the ugliness beneath the flawless skin.

There is so much going on, so many messages in this book that it is difficult to choose a single aspect to spotlight for a short review. Because most of Dorian’s debaucheries are never explicitly stated, each individual will most likely see a different monster in this tale that is still so relevant today in a society where image seems to be everything. Said Wilde himself, "Each man sees his own sin in Dorian Gray. What Dorian Gray’s sins are, no one knows. He who finds them has brought them."

Thursday, March 20, 2008

You’ve just reached the end of a book . . . what do you do now? Savor and muse over the book? Dive right into the next one? Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the next book you’re going to read? What?

(Obviously, there can be more than one answer, here–a book with a cliff-hanger is going to engender different reactions than a serene, stand-alone, but you get the idea!)

I think my answer is always the same: Dig right in to the next one!! Just like most of us, I always have too many I want to read and not enough time to read them. And with all these Challenges I've discovered, there's no time to waste! :-)

If you'd like to play along with Booking Through Thursday, click here.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

I'm hard at work developing a new, fun and educational reading project. I posted about my U.S. Presidents Reading Project, and a few people had expressed an interest in joining in and wondered if I was going to host an "official" project. I mulled it over, and I've decided to go ahead and take the plunge! I'm working on the blog now. It will be a project in which participants read at least one non-fiction book about each President, taking as long as they would like to do so. I would like the blog to act as a resource for everyone who would like to participate. There will be links to each participant's site, if they so choose, pages for each President and book suggestions for each with convenient links to Amazon for more information. There will be open comments where participants can review the books they've read, leave links to the reviews on their own sites, and leave additional suggestions for books. There will even be a link to the White House website where readers can do some additional exploration. I'm thrilled with the way it is developing and hoping to officially open the project for participation in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know. I can't wait to get it all going! Unfortunately, this is also causing other wild ideas. World Leaders Reading Project, anyone? :-)

Monday, March 17, 2008

Let it be understood right from the outset that anything I say in this review is not meant as an attack or even an insult to Anne Rice as an author or a person, nor to Christians, Christianity or anyone or anything else. These words are merely my honest feelings about a book I read by an author I happen to like a lot and that just happens to have Jesus as the main character.

Considering my disappointment with Blackwood Farm, Blood Canticle, and the first book in this series, Christ The Lord, I’m not certain why I continue to read new Anne Rice books. I think it’s similar to when you know it’s time to end a relationship that no longer brings either of you joy, but you’re not exactly unhappy and you’ve been together for sooooo long . . . . And you’re just certain that things will go back to the way they used to be and feel the way it used to feel. I just don’t know. There are books by Anne that have an honored place on my bookshelves: Interview With The Vampire, Pandora, Blood & Gold, The Mummy. After so much darkness and violence, I respect Anne’s decision to follow her faith and write the story of Jesus. I just wish I liked it more.

The writing is pure Anne Rice, flowery and dramatic and beautiful. But I find the story being unfurled dull and uninspiring and the characters don’t grab me. None of them make me want to see into their minds and souls. And the one mind you do want to see into feels too limited. I think what bothers me the most is this: If a person is going to write the story of Jesus, there should be more to it than what I can get directly out of The Bible. Especially considering the story is told in first person. Jesus is telling me his story himself, and I don’t feel I know him any better than if I just sat down and read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I’m not sure what that says about me, when Jesus doesn’t move me at all, but I’m guessing there is more than one brick already paving my way to hell. It is probably not fair to Anne or this book, but the fact is that I’m longing for the early days, to once again fall under a spell as beguiling as that cast by Lestat and Louis and Armand and Marius. And, with all due respect to Anne Rice and Our Lord, Jesus just isn’t doing it for me. (Yup. That would be the sound of the laying of another brick . . .)

Sunday, March 16, 2008

If this is not the most adorable book on the planet, it has got to be in the top two or three. It just has to be! Maybe my reading has been too grim and serious lately, but The Wind In The Willows put a smile on my face and a spring in my step. What fun I had speeding with Toad in his motorcar, lazily floating the river with Rat and Mole, and listening to the wise words of Badger. If I had kids, I’d read this to them every night!!

One of my favorite episodes was when Mole and Rat rescue Otter’s lost son. During their adventure, they encounter the god Pan, who gives them the Gift of Forgetfulness. At first I wondered why forgetfulness would be considered a gift. Upon further reflection, I became a believer. When something really awful happens to you, it is the Gift of Forgetfulness, in whole or in part, that allows you to eventually carry on. Mothers forget how painful childbirth was, those who have lost a loved one eventually forget some of the hurt but not the person. We even sometimes forget things that were stunningly wonderful and that allows us to continue to be happy in our ordinarily non-exciting lives. Which, in turn, allows us to re-experience that feeling of great joy when something extraordinary again happens. If we continually dwelt in great ecstasy or great sorrow, the beautiful range of emotions would be lost. The Gift of Forgetfulness is a key to the Gift of Living.

Enough waxing poetic. I’m going to go find Mole and Rat and have an adventure! :-)

When it comes to Jean Plaidy, there are times I think I could write just two all-purpose reviews with blanks to fill in for names and places – one for her books that focus more on history and one for her books that focus more on relationships – for that is how the books feel sometimes. One or the other, mostly the same, change the details. But that would be greatly disrespecting the enormous corpus this gifted and prolific author has produced, and it would definitely rob the books of their due. The truth of the matter is while few of them are works that I would deem outstanding, I can always count on Jean Plaidy for a fast, informative and pleasing read. In short, she is a writer I turn to when I want a book I know I will enjoy.

If one is reading the "Queens of England" series in historical order, The Queen’s Secret is the second of twelve volumes. (The first is The Courts of Love.) It is the story of Katherine of Valois, mother of the Tudor dynasty. This is one of the Plaidy books that is more relationship-focused than history-focused. The history you learn is mostly via conversations between characters rather than any actions that Katherine is involved in personally. Her direct story is of her marriage to Henry V and her later secret marriage to Owen Tudor. Therefore, when Joan of Arc makes her mark in France, we only get to see it from a great distance. I had hoped there would be a little more about that, but, on the other hand, it piqued my interest enough that I will most likely be scouting out more books about Joan in the future.

One thing I found very interesting in reading the first two volumes of this series was the marked difference in the feelings regarding family in the two queens, Eleanor of Aquitaine (in The Courts of Love) and Katherine of Valois. Katherine cares only for her children and family, and admires the lifestyle of the common people that allows them to raise their own children. Eleanor barely knew her children and didn’t care. Governing the country came first for her. While Eleanor’s attitude was considered normal for nobility in general and royalty in particular, I think many readers will relate more to Katherine’s pain at surrendering her child to the state and her need to have a real family.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Just the other day I was mulling over my reading list for the year and thinking that I was woefully short of any non-fiction. And along comes Joy with another challenge! I told her she was bad for me, but I meant it in the most "thank you, thank you, thank you for giving me an excuse to join yet another challenge" way! :-)

Here are the rules:

1. Read 5 non-fiction books during the months of May - September, 2008

2. Read at least one non-fiction book that is different from your other choices (i.e.: 4 memoirs and 1 self-help)

3. All choices need not be posted and may change at any time.

I can do that! Right? What's another 5 books? And I need a change from fiction every now and then. I am posting my list of potential candidates and here it is:

The Know-It-All by A.J. JacobsGreat Books by David DenbyHow To Think About The Great Ideas by Mortimer AdlerThe Spartans by Paul CartledgeThe Murder Trials by CiceroEssays by PlutarchThe Persian Expedition by XenophonCan I Keep The Jersey by Paul Shirley

Yup. I've got to give serious consideration to hosting that "Finish Your Challenges From Last Year" Challenge next year . . . :-)

Thursday, March 13, 2008

__________ would have been a much better book if ______________________.

This is a hard one for me, as I am a very forgiving reader. (Which may not seem like an honest statement when I post my next couple of reviews. . .) Even books I'm not particularly fond of, I can usually find something I liked about it. I have a hard time boldly stating a book is just plain bad, because deep down there is a little voice always yelling back, "If you think you can do a better job, there's the computer. . ." :-) Disclaimer -- This is just a personal hang-up of mine, and not a statement regarding anyone else's views or their right to state them.

That being said, this question isn't really asking me to rip on a book. Merely state how a specific book could have been improved for me personally. Right? In that case, here goes:

The Watchman by Robert Crais would have been a much better book if the girl Joe Pike had fallen for had been a stronger, more intelligent woman rather than (as I stated in a previous post) a Paris Hilton-like Hollywood idiot. Joe is such a fabulous character and it was really disappointing to see him so attracted to a shallow, self-absorbed person, even if she does improve just a hair at the end. All through the Elvis Cole novels (where he originated from), if I was able to picture him hooking up with anybody at all it would have been some amazing, larger than life woman. I see him with Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), not one of The Girls Next Door.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

In an effort to keep things easily accessible and visually uncluttered (and just because I'm learning how to do new things on this blog. . .), I've made a few changes:

1. I've added a pic of our old tomcat, Jack. He was feeling left out. :-)

2. I've taken the list of "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" from the bottom of my main page and it is now available from the sidebar under "Ongoing Reading Projects".

3. In anticipation of doing reading challenges every year until I die, I've made new links by year on the sidebar. Under each year will be links to both my personal pages for that year's challenges and to the Official Challenge sites. (It currently looks a little lonely with only 2008 there.)

4. I've added "Reviews" links to the sidebar which will list and link all the reviews I've done on this site both by author and title. I've also made a separate one for short stories.

5. And last but not least, I've added links directly to Amazon.com of the books I talk about on this blog and a general Amazon.com search box on the sidebar. It's an easy way to see the descriptions of the books and what others had to say about them. Not to mention a convenient technique for further enlarging all of our TBR piles!

I think that's it for now. If any of you have any other suggestions to make this site more usable and/or entertaining, please let me know!!

Monday, March 10, 2008

In the Company of the Courtesan follows celebrated Roman courtesan Fiammetta Bianchini from her escape of the sack of Rome in 1527 through her struggles and reemergence in the city of Vienna. Told from the point of view of her dwarf companion, Bucino, more sensitive readers may want to shy away from this one, as Fiammetta makes no apologies for what she is and the story is often told using the coarse language of her trade. Beautiful pictures are painted, highlighted with a generous sprinkling of vulgarity.

If that is not an issue for you, then you are in for an enchanting read! The book does not focus on her work as a courtesan. There are no detailed boudoir scenes. But we see her life around her profession, how she overcomes tragedy and physical disfigurements that would have ended the careers of the less stoic and how she and Bucino handle the frailties of success when it ultimately comes to them.

While most of the novel focuses on Fiammetta and Bucino and their trials and tribulations, it is an unexpected swerve toward the end that takes the book from "good read" to a higher level. Characters who until then have been interesting become extraordinary indeed, and a story that would have been fascinating but forgettable becomes one that you will not want to end.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Over on one of the many Yahoo discussions for book challenges, I was asked which of Cormac McCarthy's books I liked the best. I thought I would also share my answer here for those who may be wondering:

I have only read the three noted in my review [of The Orchard Keeper], and I would definitely say "The Road" was my favorite. It is hugely depressing, but I could not get that book out of my head. I still can't. I hesitate to recommend it in general because it is so emotionally disturbing and painful and that is not what people I know tend to seek out for entertainment, but for me personally, it remains one of the best books I have ever read if only for its ability to affect me so deeply.

McCarthy is not an easy author to read for many reasons, but he seems to always be an experience in some way or another. I think he is someone people either love or hate without a lot of middle ground. I read him like the proverbial train-wreck. I get mesmerized and just can't seem to look away. . .

If any of you decide to give McCarthy a try, please stop back and let me know what you read and your thoughts. Inquiring minds want to know!

Friday, March 7, 2008

My intent is not necessarily to read this whole list, but to make a healthy dent in it. I'm fascinated with this list and intend to make many choices from it in the coming years. And I love the way my collection of them looks all lined up on the shelf!

I believe this list is from 2005. I got it from Wikipedia. I don't have a list generated by author because I'm lazy. :-)

Adam Bede by George EliotThe 'Adventures' and 'Memoirs' of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan DoyleThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark TwainThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark TwainThe Aeneid by VirgilThe Alexiad by Anna ComnenaAdolphe by Benjamin ConstantThe Adventures of Augie March by Saul BellowThe Adventures of David Simple by Sarah FieldingAgainst Nature by Joris-Karl HuysmansAgainst Slavery by VariousAgapē Agape by William GaddisThe Age of Alexander by PlutarchThe Age of Bede by VariousThe Age of Innocence by Edith WhartonAgnes Grey by Anne BrontëThe Agricola and the Germania by TacitusThe Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis BorgesAlfred the Great by AnonymousAlice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis CarrollAll My Sons by Arthur MillerAll's Well That Ends Well by William ShakespeareThe Ambassadors by Henry JamesAmerica and Americans and Selected Nonfiction by John SteinbeckThe American by Henry JamesAmerican Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings by Zitkala-SaAmerican Notes for General Circulation by Charles DickensThe Analects by Confucius'Ancient Sorceries' and Other Weird Stories by Algernon BlackwoodAngle of Repose by Wallace StegnerAnna Karenina by Leo TolstoyThe Annals of Imperial Rome by TacitusAntony and Cleopatra by William ShakespeareAn Apology for Raymond Sebond by Michel de MontaigneApocalypse by D.H. LawrenceApologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry NewmanThe Aran Islands by J.M. SyngeArmadale by Wilkie CollinsArmy Life in a Black Regiment by Thomas Wentworth HigginsonAround the World in Eighty Days by Jules VerneThe Art of Rhetoric by AristotleThe Art of War by Sun TzuArthurian Romances by Chretien de TroyesAs I Crossed the Bridge of Dreams by SarashinaAs You Like It by William ShakespeareAt Fault by Kate ChopinThe Athenian Constitution by AristotleAu Bonheur des Dames by Emile ZolaAurora Leigh and Other Poems by Elizabeth Barrett BrowningAutobiography by Benvenuto CelliniThe Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon JohnsonThe Autobiography and Other Writings by Benjamin FranklinAutobiographies by Charles DarwinThe Awakening and Selected Stories by Kate ChopinThe Awkward Age by Henry James

Babbitt by Sinclair LewisThe Bacchae and Other Plays by EuripidesThe Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro by Pierre BeaumarchaisBarchester Towers by Anthony TrollopeBarnaby Rudge by Charles DickensBaudelaire in English by Charles BaudelaireBayou Folk and A Night in Acadie by Kate ChopinThe Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott FitzgeraldBeen Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me by Richard FarinaThe Beggar's Opera by John GayBel-Ami by Guy de MaupassantThe Bell by Iris MurdochBeowulf: A Glossed Text by AnonymousBeowulf: A Prose Translation by AnonymousBeowulf: A Verse Translation by AnonymousThe Betrothed by Alessandro ManzoniBetween Past and Future by Hannah ArendtBeyond Good and Evil by Friedrich NietzscheThe Bhagavad Gita by AnonymousThe Bible by AnonymousBilliards at Half-past Nine by Heinrich BöllBilly Budd and Other Stories by Herman MelvilleThe Birds and Other Plays by AristophanesThe Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich NietzscheBlack Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca WestThe Black Prince by Iris MurdochThe Black Sheep by Honoré de BalzacThe Black Tulip by Alexandre DumasThe Blazing World and Other Writings by Margaret CavendishBleak House by Charles DickensThe Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel HawthorneThe Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de PizanThe Book of the Courtier by Baldassare CastiglioneThe Book of Disquiet by Fernando PessoaThe Book of Lamentations by Rosario CastellanosThe Book of Margery Kempe by Margery KempeThe Bostonians by Henry JamesMutiny on the Bounty by William BlighBrand by Henrik IbsenThe Bride of Lammermoor by Walter ScottBrighton Rock by Graham GreeneThe Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor DostoyevskyBuddhist Scriptures by AnonymousA Burnt-Out Case by Graham GreeneBurning Bright by John Steinbeck

Caleb Williams by William GodwinThe Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H. P. LovecraftThe Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories by Jack LondonThe Campaigns of Alexander by ArrianCan You Forgive Her? by Anthony TrollopeCandide by Francois VoltaireCannery Row by John SteinbeckThe Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey ChaucerThe Canterbury Tales: The First Fragment by Geoffrey ChaucerCapital by Karl MarxCaptain Blood by Rafael SabatiniCaptains Courageous by Rudyard KiplingCarpenter's Gothic by William GaddisThe Castle of Otranto by Horace WalpoleCastle Rackrent and Ennui by Maria EdgeworthChance by Joseph ConradThe Charterhouse of Parma by StendhalChattering Courtesans and Other Sardonic Sketches by LucianA Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles DickensChronicle of the Narvaez Expedition by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de VacaChronicles by Jean FroissartChronicles of the Canongate by Walter ScottChronicles of the Crusades by Jean de JoinvilleThe Cid, Cinna, The Theatrical Illusion by Pierre CorneilleThe Cistercian World by VariousCity of God by Augustine of HippoThe Civil War by Julius CaesarThe Civil Wars by AppianClarissa by Samuel RichardsonClassical Literary Criticism by VariousClaudius the God by Robert GravesClotel, or The President's Daughter by William Wells BrownThe Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works by AnonymousThe Clown by Heinrich BollCold Comfort Farm by Stella GibbonsCollected Poems by Arthur RimbaudCollected Stories by Isaac BabelCollected Short Stories, Volume I by W. Somerset MaughamCollected Short Stories, Volume II by W. Somerset MaughamCollected Short Stories, Volume III by W. Somerset MaughamCollected Short Stories, Volume IV by W. Somerset MaughamColonial American Travel Narratives by VariousThe Comedians by Graham GreeneThe Comedies: Adelphoe, Andria, Eunuchus, Heauton Timorumenos, Hecyra and Phormio by TerenceThe Comedy of Errors by William ShakespeareComing, Aphrodite! by Willa CatherCommon Sense by Thomas PaineThe Communist Manifesto by Karl MarxThe Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English by Geza VermesThe Complete English Poems by John DonneThe Complete Essays by Michel de MontaigneThe Complete Fables by AesopThe Complete Fairy Tales by George MacDonaldThe Complete Odes and Epodes by HoraceThe Complete Pelican Shakespeare by William ShakespeareThe Complete Plays by Christopher MarloweThe Complete English Poems by George HerbertThe Complete Poems by William BlakeThe Complete Poems by Samuel Taylor ColeridgeComplete Poems by James Weldon JohnsonThe Complete Poems by John KeatsComplete Poems by D.H. LawrenceThe Complete Poems by Andrew MarvellThe Complete Poems by John MiltonComplete Poems by Marianne MooreThe Complete Poems by Jean-Jacques RousseauThe Complete Saki by H.H. MunroComplete Short Fiction by Oscar WildeComplete Short Stories by Graham GreeneComplete Stories by Dorothy ParkerComplete Writings by Phillis WheatleyCon Men and Cut Purses by Lucy MooreThe Conference of the Birds by Farid Ud-Din AttarA Confession and Other Religious Writings by Leo TolstoyConfessions by Augustine of HippoThe Confessions by Jean-Jacques RousseauConfessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De QuinceyThe Confidence-Man by Herman MelvilleThe Confusions of Young Torless by Robert MusilConjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line by Charles W. ChesnuttA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark TwainThe Conquest of Gaul by Julius CaesarThe Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del CastilloThe Consolation of Philosophy by BoethiusConversations of Socrates by XenophonCoriolanus by William ShakespeareCount Belisarius by Robert GravesThe Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre DumasThe Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia by Philip SidneyThe Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories by Sarah Orne JewettCousin Bette by Honoré de BalzacCousin Pons by Honoré de BalzacThe Crab-Flower Club by Cao XueqinCranford and Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth GaskellCrime and Punishment by Fyodor DostoyevskyThe Crucible by Arthur MillerThe Cruise of the Snark by Jack LondonCup of Gold by John SteinbeckThe Custom of the Country by Edith WhartonCymbeline by William Shakespeare

Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy by Jean WebsterDaisy Miller by Henry JamesThe Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold FredericThe Damned by Joris-Karl HuysmansDaniel Deronda by George EliotDangling Man by Saul BellowDaphnis and Chloe by LongusDe Anima by AristotleDe Profundis and Other Writings by Oscar WildeDead Souls by Nikolai GogolThe Dean's December by Saul BellowDeath in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas MannThe Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo TolstoyThe Death of King Arthur by AnonymousDeath of a Salesman by Arthur MillerThe Decameron by Giovanni BoccaccioThe Deerslayer by James Fenimore CooperDemocracy in America by Alexis De TocquevilleThe Descent of Man by Charles DarwinThe Desert Fathers by VariousDesperate Remedies by Thomas HardyThe Devils by Fyodor DostoyevskyD.H. Lawrence and Italy by D.H. LawrenceThe Dhammapada by AnonymousDialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David HumeThe Diary of Lady Murasaki by Murasaki ShikibuDiary of a Madman and Other Stories by Nikolai GogolThe Digest of Roman Law by JustinianDiscourse on Inequality by Jean-Jacques RousseauThe Discourses by Niccolò MachiavelliThe Distracted Preacher and Other Stories by Thomas HardyThe Divine Comedy Volume I: Inferno by Dante AlighieriThe Divine Comedy, Volume 1: Inferno by Dante AlighieriThe Divine Comedy, Part 2: Purgatory by Dante AlighieriThe Divine Comedy: Purgatory by Dante AlighieriThe Divine Comedy Volume III: Paradise by Dante AlighieriThe Divine Comedy, Part 3: Paradise by Dante AlighieriA Doll's House and Other Plays by Henrik IbsenDomesday Book translated by Geoffrey MartinDomestic Manners of the Americans by Frances TrollopeDon Juan by Lord ByronDon Quixote by Miguel de CervantesDiscourse on Method and Related Writings by René DescartesDavid Copperfield by Charles DickensDr. Wortle's School by Anthony TrollopeDombey and Son by Charles DickensDracula by Bram StokerThe Dreams in the Witch House by H. P. LovecraftThe Drinking Den by Emile ZolaDubliners by James JoyceDuluth by Gore Vidal

The Earliest English Poems by VariousEarly American Drama by VariousEarly American Writing by VariousEarly Christian Writings by VariousEarly Greek Philosophy by VariousThe Early History of Rome by Titus LivyEarly Irish Myths and Sagas by VariousEarly Plays by Eugene O'NeillEarly Poems by Robert FrostEarly Poems by Edna St. Vincent MillayEarly Socratic Dialogues by PlatoEarly Writings by Karl MarxEast of Eden by John SteinbeckEcce Homo by Friedrich NietzscheThe Ecclesiastical History of the English People by BedeEffi Briest by Theodor FontaneEgil's Saga by AnonymousEichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah ArendtEither/Or by Søren KierkegaardElective Affinities by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheElectra and Other Plays by SophoclesThe Emigrants by Gilbert ImlayEminent Victorians by Lytton StracheyEmma by Jane AustenThe End of the Affair by Graham GreeneEnglish Romantic Verse by VariousEngland Made Me by Graham GreeneThe Enneads by PlotinusThe Enormous Room by E. E. CummingsThe Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous, prose translation by Nancy SandarsThe Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous, verse translation by Andrew GeorgeErewhon by Samuel ButlerThe Erotic Poems by OvidAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John LockeThe Essays by Francis BaconEssays by Michel de MontaigneEssays by PlutarchEssays and Aphorisms by Arthur SchopenhauerEsther by Henry AdamsEthan Frome by Edith WhartonEugene Onegin by Alexander PushkinEugenie Grandet by Honoré de BalzacThe Europeans by Henry JamesThe Eustace Diamonds by Anthony TrollopeEvelina by Frances BurneyExemplary Stories by Miguel de CervantesExile's Return by Malcolm CowleyThe Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons by John Wesley Powell

Facundo by Domingo F. SarmientoThe Faerie Queene by Edmund SpenserA Fairly Honourable Defeat by Iris MurdochThe Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings by Edgar Allan PoeThe Fall of the Roman Republic by PlutarchFar from the Madding Crowd by Thomas HardyFasti by OvidFather and Son by Edmund GosseFathers and Sons by Ivan TurgenevFaust by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheFear and Trembling by Søren KierkegaardThe Federalist Papers by Alexander HamiltonFelix Holt, the Radical by George EliotThe Fiddler of the Reels and Other Stories by Thomas HardyFifth Business by Robertson DaviesThe Fifth Queen by Ford Madox FordThe Figure in the Carpet and Other Stories by Henry JamesFinnegans Wake by James JoyceFirst Love by Ivan TurgenevFive Children and It by E. NesbitFive Plays by Thomas MiddletonThe Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth HuxleyFlatland by Edwin A. AbbottFlaubert in Egypt by Gustave FlaubertForty Stories by Donald BarthelmeFour Comedies by William ShakespeareThe Four Feathers by A.E.W. MasonFour Histories by William ShakespeareFour Tragedies by William ShakespeareFour Tragedies and Octavia by SenecaThe Four Voyages by Christopher ColumbusThe Fox, The Captain's Doll, The Ladybird by D.H. LawrenceFragments by HeraclitusFramley Parsonage by Anthony TrollopeFrankenstein by Mary ShelleyFrench Provincial Cooking by Elizabeth DavidThe Frogs and Other Plays by Aristophanes

The Gambler, Bobok, A Nasty Story by Fyodor DostoyevskyThe Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine MansfieldGargantua and Pantagruel by Francois RabelaisGentlemen Prefer Blondes and But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes by Anita LoosThe Georgics by VirgilGhosts and Other Plays by Henrik IbsenThe Gilded Age by Mark TwainGisli Sursson's Saga and The Saga of the People of Eyri by Martin RegalGod's Trombones by James Weldon JohnsonThe Gods Will Have Blood by Anatole FranceThe Golden Ass by ApuleiusThe Golden Bough by James FrazerThe Golden Bowl by Henry JamesThe Golden Days by Cao XueqinThe Good Apprentice by Iris MurdochThe Good Soldier by Ford Madox FordThe Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War by Jaroslav HasekGorgias by PlatoGrace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John BunyanThe Grandissimes by George Washington CableThe Grapes of Wrath by John SteinbeckGravity's Rainbow by Thomas PynchonGreat Expectations by Charles DickensThe Greek Sophists by John DillonGrundrisse by Karl MarxThe Guermantes Way by Marcel ProustThe Guide by R.K. NarayanGulliver's Travels by Jonathan SwiftGunnar's Daughter by Sigrid UndsetGuy Mannering by Walter Scott

Hamlet by William ShakespeareThe Hand of Ethelberta by Thomas HardyA Harlot High and Low by Honoré de BalzacHard Times by Charles DickensA Hazard of New Fortunes by William Dean HowellsHe Knew He Was Right by Anthony TrollopeHeart of Darkness by Joseph ConradThe Heart of the Matter by Graham GreeneThe Heart of Midlothian by Walter ScottHeartbreak House by George Bernard ShawHedda Gabler and Other Plays by Henrik IbsenHenderson the Rain King by Saul BellowHenry IV, Part I by William ShakespeareHenry IV, Part II by William ShakespeareHenry V by William ShakespeareHenry VI, Part I by William ShakespeareHenry VI, Part II by William ShakespeareHenry VI, Part III by William ShakespeareHenry VIII by William ShakespeareThe Heptameron by Marguerite de NavarreHeracles and Other Plays by EuripidesHerland, The Yellow Wallpaper, and Selected Writings by Charlotte Perkins GilmanA Hero of Our Time by Mikhail LermontovHeroides by OvidHerzog by Saul BellowHesiod and Theognis by Hesiod and TheognisHindu Myths by AnonymousHippocratic Writings by VariousThe History of Alexander by Quintus Curtius RufusThe History of the Church by EusebiusThe History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated by Lewis ThorpeThe History of Mary Prince by Mary PrinceThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward GibbonA History of the Franks by Gregory of ToursA History of My Times by XenophonThe History of the Peloponnesian War by ThucydidesHistory of the Thirteen by Honoré de BalzacThe History of Tom Jones by Henry FieldingThe Histories by HerodotusThe Histories by TacitusHome of the Gentry by Ivan TurgenevHomeric Hymns by HomerThe Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan DoyleThe House Behind the Cedars by Charles W. ChesnuttThe House of the Dead by Fyodor DostoyevskyThe House of Mirth by Edith WhartonThe House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel HawthorneHow Much Land Does a Man Need? and Other Stories by Leo TolstoyHow the Other Half Lives by Jacob A. RiisHowards End by E.M. ForsterHrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories by AnonymousHumboldt's Gift by Saul BellowHunger by Knut HamsunHungry Hearts by Anzia YezierskaThe Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll

I, Claudius by Robert GravesThe Idiot by Fyodor DostoyevskyIdylls of the King by Alfred TennysonIf Not Now, When? by Primo LeviThe Iliad by HomerThe Imitation of Christ by Thomas à KempisThe Immoralist by Andre GideThe Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays by Oscar WildeIn Dubious Battle by John SteinbeckIn the Land of Time by Lord DunsanyIn Patagonia by Bruce ChatwinIn the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel ProustIn the South Seas by Robert Louis StevensonIncidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet JacobsThe Inheritance by Louisa May AlcottThe Innocents Abroad by Mark TwainThe Interesting Narrative and Other Writings by Olaudah EquianoIntroductory Lectures on Aesthetics by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelThe Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. WellsItalian Food by Elizabeth DavidItalian Hours by Henry JamesIvanhoe by Walter Scott

Jacob's Room by Virginia WoolfJacques the Fatalist and His Master by Denis DiderotJane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëJapanese No Dramas by VariousJazz Age Stories by F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Jewish War by Flavius JosephusThe Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious by Sigmund FreudJoseph Andrews/Shamela by Henry FieldingA Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel DefoeThe Journals of Captain Cook by James CookJournals and Letters by Frances BurneyThe Journals of Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis and William ClarkThe Journey Through Wales and The Description of Wales by Gerald of WalesA Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides by Samuel JohnsonJourney Without Maps by Graham GreeneJ R by William GaddisJude the Obscure by Thomas HardyThe Jugurthine War and The Conspiracy of Catiline by SallustJulius Caesar by William ShakespeareThe Jungle by Upton SinclairThe Jungle Book by Rudyard KiplingJust-So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Kenilworth by Walter ScottKidnapped by Robert Louis StevensonKim by Rudyard KiplingKing Harald's Saga by Snorri SturlusonKing John by William ShakespeareKing Lear by William ShakespeareKing Lear: The 1608 Quarto and 1623 Folio Texts by William ShakespeareKolyma Tales by Varlam ShalamovThe Koran: With Parallel Arabic Text by AnonymousThe Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories by Leo TolstoyKrishna: The Beautiful Legend of God by AnonymousKristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath by Sigrid UndsetKristin Lavransdatter II: The Wife by Sigrid UndsetKristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross by Sigrid Undset

The Lais of Marie de France by Marie de FranceLa Bête Humaine by Emile ZolaLa Vita Nuova by Dante AlighieriLady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth BraddonLady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. LawrenceLady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon by Jane AustenLady with the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904 by Anton ChekhovA Laodicean by Thomas HardyThe Last Days of Socrates by PlatoThe Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore CooperThe Last Word and Other Stories by Graham GreeneThe Later Roman Empire by Ammianus MarcellinusThe Law and the Lady by Wilkie CollinsThe Laws by PlatoThe Laws of Manu by AnonymousLaxdaela Saga by AnonymousLazarillo de Tormes by Anonymous and The Swindler by Francisco de QuevedoLe Morte d'Arthur: Volume I by Thomas MaloryLe Morte d'Arthur: Volume II by Thomas MaloryLeaves of Grass by Walt WhitmanThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories by Washington IrvingLes Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de LaclosLes Miserables by Victor HugoLetters from a Stoic by SenecaThe Letters of Abelard and Heloise by Peter AbelardThe Letters of John and Abigail Adams by Abigail Adams and John AdamsThe Letters of Vincent van Gogh by Vincent van GoghLetters on England by VoltaireLetters to Father by Suor Maria CelesteLeviathan by Thomas HobbesThe Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles DickensThe Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr by E.T.A. HoffmannThe Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence SterneA Life in Letters by Anton ChekhovA Life in Letters by Henry JamesThe Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth GaskellThe Life of St. Columba by Adomnan of IonaThe Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself by Teresa of AvilaThe Life of Samuel Johnson by James BoswellLife on the Mississippi by Mark TwainLift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon JohnsonThe Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob by George EliotA Literary Review by Søren KierkegaardLittle Dorrit by Charles DickensA Little Princess by Frances Hodgson BurnettLittle Women by Louisa May AlcottLives of the Artists: Volume I by Giorgio VasariLives of the Artists: Volume II by Giorgio VasariLives of the Later Caesars by AnonymousThe Log from the Sea of Cortez by John SteinbeckThe Long Valley by John SteinbeckLooking Backward by Edward BellamyLord Jim by Joseph ConradThe Loss of the Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale by Owen ChaseThe Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich BollLost Illusions by Honoré de BalzacThe Lost World and Other Thrilling Tales by Arthur Conan DoyleLove by StendhalLove Visions: The Book of the Duchess; The House of Fame; The Parliament of Birds; The Legend of Good Women by Geoffrey ChaucerLove's Labor's Lost by William ShakespeareLove-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister by Aphra BehnLoving/Living/Party Going by Henry GreenThe Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Writings by Bret HarteLucky Jim by Kingsley AmisLysistrata and Other Plays by Aristophanes

The Mabinogion by AnonymousMacbeth by William ShakespeareMcTeague by Frank NorrisMadame Bovary by Gustave FlaubertMain Street by Sinclair LewisMaggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen CraneMajor Barbara by George Bernard ShawMakers of Rome by PlutarchMaldoror and Poems by LautreamontMalgudi Days by R.K. NarayanThe Man Within by Graham GreeneThe Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis StevensonMaxims and Reflections by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre DumasMan and Superman by George Bernard ShawThe Man Who Had All the Luck by Arthur MillerThe Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. ChestertonThe Man-Eater of Malgudi by R.K. NarayanThe Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan PotockiThe Marble Faun by Nathaniel HawthorneThe Marquise of O-- and Other Stories by Heinrich von KleistThe Marrow of Tradition by Charles W. ChesnuttMartin Chuzzlewit by Charles DickensMartin Eden by Jack LondonMary Barton by Elizabeth GaskellMary, Maria, Matilda by Mary WollstonecraftMansfield Park by Jane AustenMaster and Man and Other Stories by Leo TolstoyThe Master Builder and Other Plays by Henrik IbsenThe Master and Margarita by Mikhail BulgakovMaxims by La RochefoucauldThe Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas HardyMeasure for Measure by William ShakespeareMedea and Other Plays by EuripidesMeditations by Marcus AureliusMeditations and Other Metaphysical Writings by René DescartesMedieval Writings on Female Spirituality by VariousMelmoth the Wanderer by Charles Robert MaturinMemoirs by William Tecumseh ShermanMephisto by Klaus MannThe Merchant of Venice by William ShakespeareThe Merry Wives of Windsor by William ShakespeareThe Messiah by Gore VidalMetamorphoses by OvidThe Metaphysics by AristotleThe Metaphysical Poets by VariousMicromegas and Other Short Fictions by VoltaireMiddlemarch by George EliotA Midsummer Night's Dream by William ShakespeareThe Mill on the Floss by George EliotThe Minister's Wooing by Harriet Beecher StoweThe Misanthrope and Other Plays by Jean-Baptiste MoliereThe Miser and Other Plays by Jean-Baptiste MoliereMiss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty by John W. De ForestMr. Sammler's Planet by Saul BellowThe Monk by Matthew LewisMont-Saint-Michel and Chartres by Henry AdamsMore Die of Heartbreak by Saul BellowMoby-Dick by Herman MelvilleA Modern Instance by William Dean HowellsMoll Flanders by Daniel DefoeThe Monkey's Wrench by Primo LeviThe Moon Is Down by John SteinbeckThe Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset MaughamThe Moonstone by Wilkie CollinsMozart's Journey to Prague and a Selection of Poems by Eduard MorikeMrs Craddock by W. Somerset MaughamMuch Ado About Nothing by William ShakespeareMy Ántonia by Willa CatherMy Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick DouglassThe Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles DickensMysteries by Knut HamsunThe Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin CrispNana by Emile ZolaThe Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan PoeNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick DouglassThe Narrative Poems by William ShakespeareNarrative of Sojourner Truth by Sojourner TruthThe Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo BashōNature and Selected Essays by Ralph Waldo EmersonThe Nature of Gods by Marcus Tullius CiceroNetochka Nezvanova by Fyodor DostoyevskyA New-England Nun by Mary Eleanor Wilkins FreemanA New-England Tale by Catharine Maria SedgwickNew Science by Giambattista VicoNews from Nowhere and Other Writings by William MorrisThe Nibelungenlied by AnonymousThe Nicomachean Ethics by AristotleA Nietzsche Reader by Friedrich NietzscheThe Nigger of the Narcissus by Joseph ConradNight and Day by Virginia WoolfNights with Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler HarrisNineteenth-Century American Poetry by VariousNjal's Saga by AnonymousNoli Me Tangere by Jose RizalNo Name by Wilkie CollinsNorth American Indians by George CatlinNorth and South by Elizabeth GaskellNorthanger Abbey by Jane AustenNorthland Stories by Jack LondonNostromo by Joseph ConradNotes from Underground, The Double by Fyodor DostoyevskyNotes on the State of Virginia by William JamesNotre-Dame of Paris by Victor HugoNuns and Soldiers by Iris Murdoch

O Pioneers! by Willa CatherThe Obedience of a Christian Man by William TyndaleOblomov by Ivan GoncharovThe Octopus by Frank NorrisThe Odd Women by George GissingThe Odyssey by HomerOf Human Bondage by W. Somerset MaughamOf Mice and Men by John SteinbeckThe Old Curiosity Shop by Charles DickensOld Goriot by Honoré de BalzacThe Old Wives' Tale by Arnold BennettOliver Twist by Charles DickensOn the Good Life by Marcus Tullius CiceroOn Government by Marcus Tullius CiceroOn Liberty by John Stuart MillOn Love and Barley by Matsuo BashōOn the Nature of the Universe by LucretiusOn Painting by Leon Battista AlbertiOn Revolution by Hannah ArendtOn the Road by Jack KerouacOn to the Alamo by Richard Penn SmithOn War by Karl Von ClausewitzOnce There Was A War by John SteinbeckOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken KeseyThe Ordeal of Richard Feverel by George MeredithThe Oregon Trail by Francis ParkmanThe Oresteia by AeschylusThe Oresteian Trilogy by AeschylusOrient Express by Graham GreeneThe Origin of Species by Charles DarwinOrkneyinga Saga by AnonymousOrlando Furioso: Part I by Ludovico AriostoOroonoko by Aphra BehnOroonoko, The Rover, and Other Works by Aphra BehnOthello by William ShakespeareOur Man in Havana by Graham GreeneOur Mutual Friend by Charles DickensOur Nig by Harriet E. WilsonPamela by Samuel RichardsonPan by Knut HamsunParade's End by Ford Madox FordParadise Lost by John MiltonA Parisian Affair and Other Stories by Guy de MaupassantParzival by Wolfram Von EschenbachThe Pastures of Heaven by John SteinbeckThe Pathfinder by James Fenimore CooperThe Pearl by John SteinbeckPeer Gynt by Henrik IbsenThe Penguin Book of First World War Poetry by VariousThe Penguin Book of French Poetry by VariousThe Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse by VariousThe Penguin Book of Victorian Verse by VariousPensees by Blaise PascalPericles by William ShakespeareAnabasis: A Persian Expedition by XenophonThe Persian Letters by MontesquieuPersonal Memoirs by Ulysses S. GrantPersuasion by Jane AustenPeter and Wendy by J.M. BarriePhaedrus and Letters VII and VIII by PlatoPhedre by Jean RacinePhilosophical Dictionary by Francois VoltaireA Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful by Edmund BurkePhineas Redux by Anthony TrollopeThe Physiology of Taste by Jean-Anthelme Brillat-SavarinThe Pickwick Papers by Charles DickensThe Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildePictures from Italy by Charles DickensPierre: or, The Ambiguities by Herman MelvillePierre and Jean by Guy de MaupassantPinocchio: The Tale of a Puppet by Carlo CollodiThe Pioneers by James Fenimore CooperThe Pit by Frank NorrisThe Playboy of the Western World and Two Other Irish Plays by J.M. SyngePlays by Anton ChekhovPlays and Fragments by MeanderPlays Pleasant by George Bernard ShawPlays Unpleasant by George Bernard ShawThe Pilgrim's Progress from This World, To That Which Is to Come by John BunyanPiers the Ploughman by William LanglandPlutarch on Sparta by PlutarchThe Poem of the Cid by AnonymousPoems by Li PoPoems and Ballads and Atalanta in Calydon by Algernon Charles SwinburnePoems and Prose by Gerard Manley HopkinsPoetics by AristotleThe Politics by AristotlePoor Folk and Other Stories by Fyodor DostoyevskyThe Portable Arthur Miller by Arthur MillerThe Portable Beat Reader by VariousThe Portable Dante by Dante AlighieriThe Portable Edith Wharton by Edith WhartonThe Portable Faulkner by William FaulknerThe Portable Graham Greene by Graham GreeneThe Portable Hannah Arendt by Hannah ArendtThe Portable Henry James by Henry JamesThe Portable John Adams by John AdamsThe Portable Mark Twain by Mark TwainThe Portable Shakespeare by William ShakespeareThe Portable Sixties Reader by VariousThe Portable Twentieth-Century Russian Reader by VariousThe Portable Walt Whitman by Walt WhitmanA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James JoyceThe Portrait of a Lady by Henry JamesThe Pot of Gold and Other Plays by PlautusThe Power and the Glory by Graham GreenePragmatism and Other Writings by William JamesThe Prairie by James Fenimore CooperPraise of Folly by Desiderius ErasmusPride and Prejudice by Jane AustenThe Prime Minister by Anthony TrollopeThe Prince by Niccolò MachiavelliThe Prince and the Pauper by Mark TwainThe Princess Casamassima by Henry JamesLa Princesse de Clèves by Madame de LafayettePrinciples of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues by George BerkeleyThe Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony HopeThe Private Journal of William Reynolds by William ReynoldsThe Professor by Charlotte BrontëPrometheus Bound and Other Plays by AeschylusThe Promised Land by Mary AntinProtagoras and Meno by PlatoThe Psychopathology of Everyday Life by Sigmund FreudPudd'nhead Wilson by Mark TwainThe Pursuit of the Well-Beloved and The Well-Beloved by Thomas HardyPygmalion by George Bernard ShawThe Queen of Spades and Other Stories by Alexander PushkinThe Quest of the Holy Grail by AnonymousQuicksand by Nella LarsenThe Quiet American by Graham Greene

Raffles by E. W. HornungRagged Dick and Struggling Upward by Horatio Alger, Jr.The Rainbow by D.H. LawrenceThe Ramayana by AnonymousRameau's Nephew and D'Alembert's Dream by Denis DiderotThe Recognitions by William GaddisThe Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories by Stephen CraneThe Red and the Black by StendhalThe Red Pony by John SteinbeckRedburn by Herman MelvilleReflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund BurkeRenaissance Women Poets by Isabella WhitneyThe Republic by PlatoResurrection by Leo TolstoyThe Return of the Native by Thomas HardyThe Return of the Soldier by Rebecca WestRevelations of Divine Love by Julian of NorwichReveries of the Solitary Walker by Jean-Jacques RousseauRichard II (play) by William ShakespeareRichard III (play) by William ShakespeareThe Riddle of the Sands by Erskine ChildersRiders of the Purple Sage by Zane GreyThe Rig Veda by AnonymousRights of Man by Thomas PaineThe Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham CahanThe Rise and Fall of Athens by PlutarchThe Rise of the Roman Empire by PolybiusThe Rope and Other Plays by PlautusRob Roy by Walter ScottRobinson Crusoe by Daniel DefoeRoderick Hudson by Henry JamesThe Roman History: The Reign of Augustus by Cassius DioThe Romance of Tristan by BeroulRomantic Fairy Tales by VariousRome and the Mediterranean by Titus LivyRomeo and Juliet by William ShakespeareRomola by George EliotA Room with a View by E.M. ForsterThe Roots of Ayurveda by VariousRoughing It by Mark TwainRoxana, Or The Fortunate Mistress by Daniel DefoeThe Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam by Omar KhayyamR.U.R. by Karel CapekA Russian Journal by John Steinbeck

The Saga of the Volsungs by AnonymousSagas of Warrior-Poets by Diana WhaleySailing Alone Around the World by Joshua SlocumSaint Joan by George Bernard ShawSalammbo by Gustave FlaubertSatires and Epistles, Persius, Satires by HoraceThe Satyricon and The Apocolocyntosis by Petronius and SenecaThe Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel HawthorneScenes of Clerical Life by George EliotThe School for Scandal and Other Plays by Richard Brinsley SheridanThe Schreber Case by Sigmund FreudThe Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan PoeThe Sea, The Sea by Iris MurdochSea and Sardinia by D.H. LawrenceThe Sebastopol Sketches by Leo TolstoyThe Secret Agent by Joseph ConradThe Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson BurnettThe Secret History by ProcopiusSeize the Day by Saul BellowSelected Essays by Samuel JohnsonSelected Journalism: 1850-1870 by Charles DickensSelected Letters by Marianne MooreSelected Letters by SevigneSelected Poems by Anna AkhmatovaSelected Poems by Charles BaudelaireSelected Poems by Robert BrowningSelected Poems by Robert BurnsSelected Poems by Lord ByronSelected Poems by John ClareSelected Poems by Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSelected Poems by John DrydenSelected Poems by Paul Laurence DunbarSelected Poems by Thomas HardySelected Poems by Victor HugoSelected Poems by John KeatsSelected Poems by Henry Wadsworth LongfellowSelected Poems by Pierre RonsardSelected Poems by Robert Louis StevensonSelected Poems by Rabindranath TagoreSelected Poems by Alfred TennysonSelected Poems by Marina TsvetaevaSelected Poems by William WordsworthSelected Poems and Fragments by Friedrich HolderlinSelected Political Speeches by Marcus Tullius CiceroSelected Short Stories by Honoré de BalzacSelected Stories by E.M. ForsterSelected Stories by O. HenrySelected Stories by Ring LardnerSelected Short Stories by Rabindranath TagoreSelected Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm GrimmSelected Tales by Henry JamesSelected Tales and Sketches by Nathaniel HawthorneSelected Verse by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheSelected Works by Marcus Tullius CiceroSelected Writings by Thomas AquinasSelected Writings by Meister EckhartSelected Works by John WilmotSense and Sensibility by Jane AustenSentimental Education by Gustave FlaubertA Sentimental Journey by Laurence SterneSeven Viking Romances by VariousThe Shadow Line by Joseph ConradShe by H. Rider HaggardShirley by Charlotte BrontëThe Shooting Party by Anton ChekhovA Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de Las CasasThe Short Reign of Pippin IV by John SteinbeckThe Shorter Poems by Edmund SpenserSickness unto Death by Søren KierkegaardSiddhartha by Herman HesseSidney's the Defence of Poesy and Selected Renaissance Literary Criticism by VariousThe Sign of Four by Arthur Conan DoyleSilas Marner by George EliotSir Gawain and the Green Knight by AnonymousSister Carrie by Theodore DreiserSix Records of a Floating Life by Shen FuSixteen Satires by JuvenalSixty Stories by Donald BarthelmeSketches by Boz by Charles DickensSketches from a Hunter's Album by Ivan TurgenevThe Small House at Allington by Anthony TrollopeThe Social Contract by Jean-Jacques RousseauThe Song of the Lark by Willa CatherThe Song of Roland by AnonymousThe Sonnets by William ShakespeareThe Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint by William ShakespeareSons and Lovers by D.H. LawrenceThe Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe Soul of Man Under Socialism and Selected Critical Prose by Oscar WildeThe Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du BoisSouth by Ernest ShackletonSpeaking of Siva by AnonymousSpecies of Spaces and Other Pieces by Georges PerecThe Spoils of Poynton by Henry JamesThe Spy by James Fenimore CooperThe State and Revolution by V.I. LeninThe Storm by Daniel DefoeStorm of Steel by Ernst JungerThe Story of My Life by Giacomo CasanovaThe Story of an African Farm by Olive SchreinerThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis StevensonThe Street of Crocodiles by Bruno SchulzA Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan DoyleStudies in Classic American Literature by D.H. LawrenceStudies on Hysteria by Sigmund FreudStuds Lonigan by James T. FarrellSummer by Edith WhartonSunjata by Bamba SusoSwann's Way by Marcel ProustSweet Thursday by John SteinbeckSymposium by Plato

Ta Hsueh and Chung Yung by AnonymousThe Táin by Anonymous, translated by Ciarán CarsonThe Tale of Genji by Murasaki ShikibuA Tale of Two Cities by Charles DickensTales from the Thousand and One Nights by AnonymousTales of Belkin and Other Prose Writings by Alexander PushkinTales of Hoffmann by E.T.A. HoffmannTales of Soldiers and Civilians by Ambrose BierceTales, Speeches, Essays, and Sketches by Mark TwainThe Taming of the Shrew by William ShakespeareTao Te Ching by Lao TzuTarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice BurroughsThe Tempest by William ShakespeareTen Days that Shook the World by John ReedThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne BrontëTess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas HardyTestament of Youth by Vera BrittainA Texas Cowboy by Charles A. SiringoTheaetetus by PlatoThe Theban Plays by SophoclesTherese Raquin by Emile ZolaThe Thirty-Nine Steps by John BuchanThe Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein VeblenThe Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H. P. LovecraftThe Third Man and The Fallen Idol by Graham GreeneThis Side of Paradise by F. Scott FitzgeraldThis Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz BorowskiThe Thomas Paine Reader by Thomas PaineThree Gothic Novels by Horace WalpoleThree Plays by August StrindbergThe Three Musketeers by Alexandre DumasThree Soldiers by John Dos PassosThe Three Theban Plays by SophoclesThus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich NietzscheTitus Andronicus by William ShakespeareThree Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. JeromeThree Plays for Puritans by George Bernard ShawThree Roman Plays by William ShakespeareThree Tales by Gustave FlaubertTimaeus and Critias by PlatoThe Time Machine by H.G. WellsTimon of Athens by William ShakespeareTo a God Unknown by John SteinbeckTo Jerusalem and Back by Saul BellowTono-Bungay by H.G. WellsTortilla Flat by John SteinbeckA Tramp Abroad by Mark TwainThe Transformation and Other Stories by Franz KafkaThe Travels by Marco PoloTravels With Charley: In Search of America by John SteinbeckTravels with a Donkey in the Cevennes and The Amateur Emigrant by Robert Louis StevensonTravels with My Aunt by Graham GreeneThe Treasure of the City of Ladies by Christine de PizanTreasure Island by Robert Louis StevensonTristan by Gottfried von StrassburgTroilus and Cressida by William ShakespeareTroilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey ChaucerThe Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers by Henry JamesTwelfth Night by William ShakespeareLives of the Twelve Caesars by SuetoniusTwenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo NerudaThe Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ by Friedrich NietzscheThe Two Gentlemen of Verona by William ShakespeareTwo Lives of Charlemagne by EinhardTwo on a Tower by Thomas HardyTyphoon and Other Stories by Joseph Conrad

The Uncanny by Sigmund FreudUncle Remus by Joel Chandler HarrisUncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le FanuUncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher StoweUnder Fire by Henri BarbusseUnder the Greenwood Tree by Thomas HardyUnder Western Eyes by Joseph ConradA Universal History of Iniquity by Jorge Luis BorgesUnto the Last and Other Writings by John RuskinUntouchable by Mulk Raj AnandUp from Slavery by Booker T. WashingtonThe Upanishads by AnonymousUtilitarianism and Other Essays by John Stuart MillUtopia by Thomas MoreThe Valley of Fear and Selected Stories by Arthur Conan DoyleVanity Fair by William Makepeace ThackerayThe Varieties of Religious Experience by William JamesVenus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-MasochThe Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver GoldsmithThe Victim by Saul BellowVictory by Joseph ConradThe Village of Stepanchikovo by Fyodor DostoyevskyVillette by Charlotte BrontëA Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary WollstonecraftVineland by Thomas PynchonThe Vinland Sagas by AnonymousThe Virginian by Owen WisterA Vocation and a Voice by Kate ChopinVolpone and Other Plays by Ben JonsonThe Voyage of Argo by Apollonius of RhodesThe Voyage of the Beagle by Charles DarwinThe Voyage Out by Virginia WoolfWalden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David ThoreauWar and Peace by Leo TolstoyThe War of the Worlds by H. G. WellsThe War with Hannibal by Titus LivyWard No. 6 and Other Stories, 1892-1895 by Anton ChekhovThe Warden by Anthony TrollopeWashington Square by Henry JamesThe Waste Land and Other Poems by T. S. EliotWaverley by Walter ScottThe Way of All Flesh by Samuel ButlerThe Way We Live Now by Anthony TrollopeThe Wayward Bus by John SteinbeckWe by Yevgeny ZamyatinThe Wealth of Nations by Adam SmithA Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Henry David ThoreauWhat Is Art? by Leo TolstoyWhat Maisie Knew by Henry JamesThe Wild Ass's Skin by Honoré de BalzacWinesburg, Ohio by Sherwood AndersonThe Wings of the Dove by Henry JamesThe Winter of Our Discontent by John SteinbeckThe Whithered Arm and Other Stories by Thomas HardyThe Winter's Tale by William ShakespeareWives and Daughters by Elizabeth GaskellWolf Willow by Wallace StegnerThe Wolfman and Other Cases by Sigmund FreudThe Woman in White by Wilkie CollinsWomen in Love by D.H. LawrenceWomen's Early American Historical Narratives by VariousWomen's Indian Captivity Narratives by VariousThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank BaumThe Woodlanders by Thomas HardyWork: A Story of Experience by Louisa May AlcottWuthering Heights by Emily BrontëA Year in Thoreau's Journal by Henry David ThoreauYoung Lonigan by James T. FarrellYouth, Heart of Darkness, The End of the Tether by Joseph ConradZazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau

I told J.C. the other day that my initial reaction to this book was, "Huh?" But that I had read 2 previous Cormac McCarthy books and was used to this feeling. I was sure it would all come together in the end. Well, I've finished the book and here is my review: Huh?

I like to think I am a relatively intelligent reader. But when I get to the end of a book and couldn't even begin to tell anyone what it was about, what happened or how it ended, I can't help but wonder if it was the book or was it just me. I can't honestly say I didn't like it at all. McCarthy's writing has a magic all its own that keeps you turning pages even as you think to yourself, "I'm not getting this at all . . ." But for some reason, this one left me completely blank.

I like Cormac McCarthy. The Road is still seared into my memory, and Child of God, involving one of the most disturbing characters I've ever encountered in my reading (a necrophiliac), was one of my oddest, creepiest literary experiences. I wouldn't run around recommending Child of God, but images of it stay with me like an accidental trip through a nightmarish circus freak show. I will read others by him in the future, and I will probably revisit this one someday to see if I can figure out what I missed. Or if I missed anything at all. And maybe that in itself is the point.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

I just have to vent for a moment. I've been cruising around, checking out other blogs and I've noticed a few really disturbing things. Like the fact that there are a lot of book snobs out there. Maybe I'm too defensive of the "1001 Books" list. After all, I didn't make the thing. But I'm reading a lot of really nasty comments about those of us who have chosen to have fun with the list. Yes, we know The Bible isn't on the list. Yes, we know there's no Shakespeare or Dante or Homer. No Plato or Milton. We know that. And you know what? We can, have and do read the things we feel are missing. All without it being on any list at all, or being told we're idiots. Amazing, isn't it? These people run their mouths (or keyboards) calling us "stupid" and "ignorant" as if we have blindly stumbled onto a list we think has been annointed as the new Western Canon. Please. Lord save us from people who have no idea what they're talking about. We all have our own reasons for reading what we read, and none of us are wrong. There is something out there for everyone, and that is the beauty of it. Now I'm off to read something that isn't on any list except my own. Horror of horrors!! :-)

Happy reading everyone! No matter what it is you choose!!Lezlie

PS Just for the record, the "1001 Books" list was an attempt to follow the history of the "novel", hence no poetry, plays, philosophy, etc., a point of which its more venomous detractors seem to be completely unaware. And I have already read Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Plato, Herodotus, and The Bible and sometimes want to read something just a little lighter. . .

Short Works Read In 2009

This will include short stories, essays and poetry. I will mostly likely not post thoughts on every piece listed here, especially individual poems, but the ones I do write about will be linked. If you have any questions about any of them, feel free to ask! Every group of 10 short stories/essays will be counted as a single "book" in my final book count at the end of the year. However, none of these "books" will qualify for the initial 100 books in the 100+ Reading Challenge. I'm not yet sure how to count single poems. Let's see if I read enough of them to merit counting. If not, they're just good reading!

Short Stories:

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates (Read Online)"Hansel and Gretel" by The Brothers Grimm (Read Online)"A Report to an Academy" by Franz Kafka (Read Online)

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

In an effort to clean things up and make room for the massive list of books I will read this year (if all these Challenges have anything to say about it!), this list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and my progress can now be found from the link on my sidebar under "Ongoing Reading Projects". Or just click here! :-)